I just spent 3 hours swearing at this thing, maybe someone here can help:

I'm trying to install an AVIC-D1 into a 2004 Jetta, in place of the existing Monsoon double-din HU. I've read here that it is a tight fit... the best I can do still leaves about 1 cm protruding from the metal cage.

After some experimentation, I discovered that it fits perfectly if I remove the IP-Bus cable from the back of the HU -- the one that's plugged into my GEX-P10XMT.

Anyone ever get this to work in this car, or have any suggestions? The connector seems to be hitting against a plastic support piece.

Ben

i havent done that vehicle and dont recall the back of the radio, but since you have it, do you think filing down or cutting some of the plastic away would help?

You will probably have to perform some hackery to get the head unit flush. Have fun !!!!

Yessome minor surgery to the rear of the dash will make it fit nicely.

Yessome minor surgery to the rear of the dash will make it fit nicely.

Any hints? I see the plastic piece that needs to ... not be there, and I have an idea of how much needs to be removed. I was thinking of taking an X-Acto blade to it, but the plastic is a little thick.

It'd be preferable to take the plastic piece out to work on it, but that requires disassembling the entire dash.

A decent pair of daigonal cutters will make short work of it, if you don't have a Dremel tool.

What he ^^^^ said. Though a dremel makes MUCH faster work.

What he ^^^^ said. Though a dremel makes MUCH faster work.

What would you recommend for a bit? This is the best picture I could find:

My car is like that, but without the horizontal piece that the yellow arrow is pointing to. Behind it, you can see a black vertical plastic piece that it hooks into, with an oval-shaped cutout at the top.

I need to cut a notch out of the side of it toward the bottom. I have a cutoff wheel for my Dremel, but I don't think that will work -- I need something that will cut from the front.

You'll want flute cutting bit i thin it's called. Looks a lot like a drill bit. The same type of bit that the rotozip uses.

Recently installed the AVIC-D2 in my 2000 Jetta GLS. Here's a few notes for installing in a MKIV Jetta/Golf/GTI.

- Prepped the wiring harness, did the bypass hack and grounded the unused pin as well as the green parking brake cable.

- When I first fit the AVIC in the dash opening I could not push the unit all way in with IP-BUS cable connected. Removed the glovebox to route the GEX-P10XMT cables and ended up removing the entire radio cage (dash panels for the driver side must be removed, as well as the center console, see the vwvortex mkiv FAQ for this). With the radio cage out I could test fit the AVIC and see exactly where the IP-BUS cable was hitting the back of the cage. I removed a notch from the back of the cage using a pair of sharp pliers. The notch is just behind where the IP bus cable would be- about 1.5cm by 1.5cm. Now unit sits all the way in the dash. I was able to do a much better job routing cables with the cage out, its worth the extra work.

- The front bezel needed some shaving/sanding on the right side since the dash opening was just short of accomodating the bezel; probbably varies from car to car.

- Didn't bother messing with speed pulse cable at first, but since the dash was already apart I removed the speedo cluster with two torx screws just above steering wheel. Unwrapped part of the electrical/cloth tape protecting the cables to the blue (left side) connector. I located the blue wire w/ white stripe and tapped it using the Pioneer provided tap. (I determined which wire to use based on what people had posted on the internet for their mkiv jetta/golf)-- speed pulse worked- now D2 shows slope. Unless you have the dash apart its probbably not worth the effort to install speed sensing.

Nice and clean, good job.....